“Yeah sure, lady, whatever. Do you keep it taped under your sink like people on those cop shows? Or do you holster it under your bathrobe?”
“I’m not kidding. It’s my boyfriend’s, and I’ll shoot you if you try to come in.”
“I’ll take my chances. Where’s Kelly? You got to the count of three to tell me, and then I’m breaking down this door and making you tell me.”
“She’s in a rehab center in Seattle.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t make the arrangements, I just took her to the airport.”
“Which one!” he yells pounding on the door again.
“I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did. You got her hooked on drugs, beat her, and threatened to kill her if she left you. Stay away from her!” I yell, feeling more and more empowered by the gun in my hands.
“I’m gonna do worse to you if you don’t fuckin tell me where my woman is, you snooty little bitch.” The pounding resumes, and then he pauses when sirens sound in the distance.
I stand up and brace myself against the wall, and I hear him kick the door once, twice, and the third time the door gives way and opens with a whoosh and a crash. But he wasn’t prepared for me to actually have a gun. It’s clear from the look on his surprised face that he thought I was bluffing.
His face moves swiftly through several emotions, first shock, then fury, and finally, one side of his mouth lifts in a smirk. “You won’t shoot me. Your hands are shaking like a leaf. I betcha never even held a gun before. Is it even loaded? Did you take the safety off? Stupid bitch,” he says and takes one step inside the small bathroom.
“Stop!” An unfamiliar voice yells from my living room. It’s not the police yet, their sirens are still blocks away. “Step away from the door.”
BJ turns to see who’s giving him orders, and his hands go up. “Hey, man, be cool, you don’t need to point that thing at me. She’s already got a gun on me.”
“Shut the hell up and move away from the door,” the man says. BJ steps away more concerned with whoever is in my living room than me.
“I don’t want no trouble. I’ll leave.”
“No trouble, huh? Is that why you broke into Ms. Thomas’s house and broke down her bathroom door?”
This must be Leo, the new guard. Thank God, I don’t have to shoot anyone.
“I just wanted her to tell me where she sent my woman, that’s all. I wasn’t gonna hurt her.”
“Whatever, man, come out of there and keep your hands up,” Leo says.
BJ steps carefully down the hall, and I follow pointing the gun at his back. Leo yells for BJ to move through the living room toward the front door. BJ is following orders until, without warning, he bolts to the left stepping on one of my loungers on the deck and launching himself over the side.
Leo and I look at each other stunned and run to look over the edge. It’s a ten-foot fall off the deck, but he seems to have landed on his side. We watch as he jumps to his feet and staggers toward the side of the house, only to drop to his knees and then flat on his back when Lennon appears and clocks him with his crutch.
BJ is out cold.
25
Lennon
I watch as BJ is lifted onto a gurney and taken away in an ambulance with a head injury. How ironic. The man responsible for my head injury has one of his own.
I squeeze Trinity tightly against me, leaning on her for support. I dented my crutch on that idiot’s hard head, leaving me with only one.
“I can’t believe you took him down with a crutch, and Leo and I had guns,” she says.
“I’m glad for your sake that you didn’t have to shoot him. I can’t say I’m sorry he’s not dead, though.”
“He wanted to know where we sent Kelly.”
“Did you tell him?”
“No, I don’t know the name of it. Fiona made the arrangements. I just helped her get on a plane to Seattle.”
“He’ll find out eventually.”
“Not if no one tells him.”
“I have a feeling Kelly will be in contact with him since her baby is his.”
The test results were emailed to me this morning. BJ is for sure the father of Kelly’s baby, not me.
“It’s his? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Just found out myself this morning when I checked my email at work.”
She’s quiet for a moment. I kiss the side of her head. “I’m glad it’s not mine.”
“Are you sure? You sounded almost happy about raising a child if it turned out to be yours.”
“I’m sure. The only person I would ever have a child with, if I ever had a child, is you.”
“So, you’ve changed your mind about kids?”
“Let’s just say I’m open for discussion if you ever change your mind.”
“I can live with that.”
“Forever?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you live with that forever, with me, as my wife?”
“Lennon Berkshire, are you proposing after only knowing me for less than a month?”
“Yes, I guess I am.” I hadn’t planned on doing it now or this way, but it feels right, and I can’t imagine my life without this woman.
She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, and then her face explodes in a massive smile.
“Yes, yes, I’ll marry your crazy ass after knowing you for less than a month. I can’t believe I’m saying this but yes, yes, yes.”
I sigh in relief and cover her face with kisses. This woman, my angel, who helped me in my darkest hour, just made me the happiest man alive.
Epilogue
Fiona
“So, when ya gonna get Trinity to move into this big-ass beach mansion?”
Lennon’s multimillion-dollar real estate investment has been sitting empty for two months. He only furnished it last week and still hasn’t fully moved in himself.
“I’m not,” he says, handing me a tumbler full of sweet tea.
“Come again? Didn’t you buy this house because she loves the beach? Aren’t you two going to live happily ever after here?”
“Yes, eventually. I’ve already pushed as far as I’m going to for a while. She accepted my proposal, but I’m expecting a long, drawn-out engagement.”
“Why would she say yes if she wasn’t ready?”
“I think she knows deep down that she loves me and wants to spend the rest of her life with me. She’s still hung up on the time thing, though. She doesn’t think people should jump into things, and I’m willing to wait as long as she needs me to.”
I shrug and twirl around in the bare living room with an entire wall of windows that face the ocean. “If I were her, I would have moved in the day you got the keys.” I walk out onto the patio, and the ocean breeze whips my hair around in a mini tornado. “Look at this view, it’s the closest thing to heaven I’ve ever seen.”
Lennon limps to join me at the railing that overlooks the beach and a fifty-foot drop of rocks. He has been walking much better since his cast was removed, but he’s still got that limp. “I agree. I hope she loves it as much as you do.”
“Wait, you haven’t shown it to her yet? She knows you bought a house, doesn’t she?”
“No, I haven’t told her yet. Today will be the first time she’s been here.”
“Don’t you think she would want to see it alone with you instead of at a party with all your fraternity brothers and their families?”
“She’ll be fine. If it were just her and I, she’d cry, and I don’t want her to cry. This way, she will have some time to get used to it. By the time everyone leaves for the night, she won’t be so emotional.”
“Can’t handle a woman crying, huh?” I point my finger at his chest. “I’m gonna remember that little bit of info. Next time I need something, I’ll turn on the waterworks.” I ball up my fist and pretend to rub my eye imitating a child crying.
“I don’t like to see Trinity cry. You, I can handle.”<
br />
I roll my eyes and huff. “Fine.”
“Are you going to sulk or help me set up before people start arriving?”
I look out at the ocean and catch Bodhi and Star sitting on their surfboards waiting on a wave, and my heart sinks. Lennon’s house is only six houses down the beach from Bodhi’s and Trinity’s houses. I sigh and slump my shoulders. “I think I’ll sulk.”
Lennon sees the source of my mood and rubs my back. “You need to try and get over that crush you have on Bodhi, you know.”
“I know. It’s hard, though. I feel something when I see him, something deep in my soul. Like, I think we’re supposed to be together, but he’s already with Star, so my senses must be way off.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember you ever being hung up on a guy.”
“Yeah, usually I can take ‘em or leave ‘em, but not my surfer king.”
“Don’t you mean Star’s surfer king?”
“Shut up and show me where the food is so we can get shit ready.” I know he’s my voice of reason, but it’s irritating to be constantly reminded that I can’t have what I want. We head back inside, and I stand waiting for Lennon to give me directions. “Dude, the food?” I say holding out my arm impatiently.
“What?”
This short-term memory thing can be such a pain in the ass. “The food, you were gonna show me where it’s at, so we can get going on this party.”
“Oh, sorry, yes food. In here.” He leads me into a prep room off the kitchen where appetizers and snacks are already arranged on platters ready to go. He looks just as surprised as I am. “You do all this?” I ask.
“Yes, I just need help setting it all up and making drinks.”
“Great, let’s move it out onto the island and you can start making drinks while I set up the playpen in the living room for the babies. I didn’t see a TV in there. You do have one, right?”
“Yes, it’s…” He thinks and returns to the white living room to look around. I’ve never seen so much white in one house. I hope Trinity brings a couple of cans of bright-colored paint when she moves in. “Oh, it’s behind that wall there. There’s a button somewhere,” he walks to the wall to search for the button.
“It’s okay, I don’t need it right now. I just wanted to make sure I had a place to play the My Little Pony movie I brought for the babies.”
“Aren’t they a little young for movies?”
“No. You’re never too young for My Little Pony.”
The doorbell rings, and we look at each other. “I thought you said six o’clock,” I say looking at my watch. It’s only five thirty.
“Trinity likes to be early.”
We walk together to answer the door, him limping along and me quiet as a mouse in my bare feet. He swings the door open and everyone is here. Trinity, Cole, Evan, Jace, Hunter and his wife Edie with their baby, Ella, and even Damian and his wife, Layna, and their baby boy, Christian.
“I hope you’re going to tell me what we’re all doing here and who’s house this is,” Trinity says, pressing a soft kiss on Lennon’s lips. He smiles like the sun just came out after a month of rain.
“I am. Please come in, make yourself at home, everyone.” He steps aside, and the group moves into the living room. They fan out oohing and ahhing about the view, the vaulted ceilings, and the floors that are so shiny you can see yourself in them.
Trinity stops on the edge of the room, staring at the ocean with her mouth hanging open.
“Do you like it?” Lennon asks, knowing full well that she does.
She turns to look at him. “Like it? Are you kidding me? I love it. Wow, it feels like you’re in the water standing in this room. It’s breathtaking.”
Everyone is standing around wondering what’s going on. I’m the only one Lennon told about the house. Trinity isn’t the only one in the dark. “I’m glad you love it because it’s ours,” Lennon says, and the room collectively gasps.
“No way, this is your house?” Trinity says, grabbing his free hand. He wobbles a bit and recovers.
“Our house. When you’re ready, that is.”
Trinity’s eyes fill with tears. I guess Lennon was wrong about her crying in front of a crowd.
Christian fusses, and I take him from Layna and bounce him on my hip. “Your Auntie Trinity is going to have you over to play in this big beautiful house,” I say and kiss his plump cheek.
“I’m… I don’t… Bloody hell, Lennon, you didn’t have to do this. My house is right down the street.”
“And you can keep it as long as you like. I’m moving in here, and you will be close by until you decide we’ve known each other long enough to live together,” Lennon says in a teasing tone.
He draws her in for a hug, and she softly cries on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she says between sniffles.
“Wow, this is beautiful. Why didn’t we buy a beach house, Damian?” Layna asks her husband.
He narrows his eyes as he thinks. He points his finger at Layna. “We thought it would be too dangerous for Christian being so close to the water,” he says.
Layna sighs. “Oh, yes, that’s right. Well, I hope you don’t mind visitors, Trinity. I’m going to be over here all the time to swim and sit on your patio.”
She smiles, raising her eyebrows. “You’ll have to take that up with Lennon, but you’re always welcome at my house,” she says with a sly smile.
“You’re all welcome, anytime,” Lennon says, and I straighten my spine, perking up.
“Anytime? You should be careful what you say. You know how this group operates. We’ll be over here every day eating your food, dragging sand into the house, messing up these pretty floors, and watching your TV,” I say.
He and Trinity look at each other and laugh. “Okay, so you’re welcome anytime as long as you call first. How’s that?” Lennon says.
Evan and Jace nod. “Works for us.”
“Us, too. Expect a call whenever I’m home for the weekend,” Damian says, and Layna nods.
Lennon pulls Trinity in for a kiss as the group settles in. The kids are deposited into the playpen with their toys. Evan and Cole bring out the food, and Layna discovers wine and beer in the refrigerator and goes about taking drink orders.
The room hums with conversation and laughter as I sit down on the couch, spread out my arms and take it all in.
Three fraternity brothers paired up, three to go. I can’t wait to see who’s next.
The End.
More from Emerson
Enjoy more great full-length Romance Novels by Emerson Rose!
King’s Baby – Bad Boy Heroes Series Book One
Playboy’s Baby – Bad Boy Heroes Series Book Two
Major’s Baby – Bad Boy Heroes Series Book Three
Bad Boy Heroes Box Set - (King’s Baby – Playboy’s Baby and Major’s Baby)
Fair Game – Sports Romance Series Book One
Fair Play – Sports Romance Series Book Two
Fair Catch – Sports Romance Series Book Three
Unbroken – A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
The Cowboy’s Nanny – The Whiskey Hill Ranch Book One
The Cowboy’s Virgin – The Whiskey Hill Ranch Book Two
The Cowboy’s City Girl – The Whiskey Hill Ranch Book Three
The Doctor’s Nanny – The Nanny Series Book One
The Lawyer’s Nanny – The Nanny Series Book Two
The Woodsman’s Nanny – The Nanny Series Book Three
Hot and Dangerous – The Fraternity Brothers Series Book One
Fast and Reckless – The Fraternity Brothers Series Book Two
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About the Author
I love summer, the smell of clean babies, lilacs and swimming. I'm a Midwestern mother of five, Mimi of two and owner of two fur babies. I spend my days writing romance, carpooling and
doing all the things that mothers do.
I write about intelligent women and the stubborn Alpha men who love them. I write about turmoil and conflict. I write about the most complex, convoluted emotion we as human beings experience.
I write about love
Rich and Seductive: The Fraternity Brothers Series Book Three Page 20
